American Superconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: AMSC) announced today that its AMSC Windtec™ subsidiary has signed a follow-on contract with Dongfang Turbine Co. Ltd. to design and jointly develop 5 megawatt (MW) full conversion wind turbines for the offshore wind power market.
Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed.
Dongfang (www.www.dfstw.com/index.aspx) is a Chinese machinery company that entered the wind power market in 2004 and shipped more than 800 wind turbines with a 1.5 MW power rating in 2008. It is currently the country’s third largest wind turbine manufacturer, according to AMSC. Dongfang will soon commission its first prototype 2.5 MW wind turbine designed under a prior agreement with AMSC Windtec and will enter volume production of these wind turbines in the second half of 2010.
Dongfang has exclusive rights to the 5 MW full conversion wind turbine designs in China and plans to begin supplying the wind turbines for the worldwide offshore market in 2012. AMSC has the right of first refusal to supply the core electrical components for the wind turbines.
“Dongfang already has established itself as one of China’s largest wind turbine manufacturers and is poised for strong growth in 2010 and beyond as it introduces its new 2.5 MW in the second half of this year and its 5 MW wind turbines in the next two years,” said Greg Yurek, founder and CEO of AMSC. “We are particularly pleased to see more and more of our customers become repeat customers for new wind turbine designs. It is a validation of our advanced wind turbine technologies and signals more growth for our customers and AMSC going forward.”
AMSC offers an array of proprietary technologies and solutions spanning the electric power infrastructure–from generation to delivery to end use.